Sailing, golf and rugby among the winners in new sports funding

Updated
April 22, 2013 18:45:00

Australia's poor performance at the Olympics in London last year has sparked sweeping changes to government sports funding. All sports have been told to be more accountable for the money they receive from the Australian Sports Commission under its new Winning Edge strategy.

MARK BANNERMAN: Australia's poor performance at the Olympics in London last year has sparked sweeping changes to government sports funding.

All sports have been told to be more accountable for the money they receive from the Australian Sports Commission under its new Winning Edge strategy.

Swimming and athletics are two key sports that will receive less money next financial year. Sailing, Rugby Sevens and canoeing have received substantial boosts.

Paralympic sports have also received a funding boost of 14 per cent, an extra $1.1 million over the next 12 months.

The Commission and the Australian Institute of Sport say it's all about moving Australian sport from world class to world best, as Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: The Australian Sports Commission's new Winning Edge strategy sets high targets for Australia to be a top five nation at the Olympics and Paralympics, top 15 at the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, and number one at the Commonwealth Games.

When it comes to Rio in 2016, the ASC (Australian Sports Commission) says that means securing between 44 and 70 medals including up to 17 gold medals. Australia is also aiming to secure at least 20 world championships along the way.

After issuing the call for funding applications in November, the ASC received 49 submissions from Australian sporting bodies.

It's all part of a new approach to more focussed funding of individual high performance sports, governance and greater accountability.

John Wylie is the chairman of the Australian Sport Commission.

JOHN WYLIE: I'm announcing today an investment of nearly $120 million in direct funding to sports for 2013-2014.

In high performance, approximately $100 million of this funding is for sports to deliver on the Winning Edge high performance targets, but I do want to emphasise today that integrity in our sports remains paramount and non-negotiable as a requirement for the Commission.

The $100 million in high performance funding includes some significant changes.

It includes an additional $5 million across 24 Olympic and Paralympic sports which made a strong performance case to the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport).

ALISON CALDWELL: Swimming, athletics, cricket, tennis and soccer will each receive less money, either because they didn't make a convincing case when it comes to future performance or due to concerns about governance.

JOHN WYLIE: I want to say to a number of sports today - in a financially constrained environment, you will not have received all of the funding that you argued for, very often passionately, and some may have even received funding cuts.

But the Commission is committed to working with you positively in the years ahead to increase the size and diversity of your funding bases, especially by increasing commercial and philanthropic support for sport.

John Wylie says they will all have to live up to high standards if they want that money to continue.

JOHN WYLIE: We have a new set of mandatory governance standards. They're the same standards we're applying for each of these top seven sports, and we're expecting that they will implement these new governing standards within 12 months, and we're saying that there is a significant exposure to their funding if they don't implement those governance reforms.

Swimming is one of those.

ALISON CALDWELL: It's not all about winning medals. Under the new funding arrangements, an extra $18 million a year will be spent on sports participation.

Along with that, an extra $3 million will be spent on athletes who do not qualify for other direct support but shape up as medal chances for the Commonwealth Games.

On the day Kurt Fearnley won the London Marathon, Paralympics sports have received an extra $1.1 million, up by 14 per cent on last year.

Jason Hellwig is the chief executive of the Australian Paralympic Committee. He says the funding boost is welcome.

JASON HELLWIG: We need to be careful, to understand that that $1.1 million, or 14 per cent, has to spread across 18 sports across both summer and winter, so it has to go a long way, and we're looking at increases of between 35,000 and a maximum of 150,000 to any one program.

But we'll make sure that it gets spent very well, and we look forward to continuing to work with government to support Paralympics sport.

ALISON CALDWELL: But there's still an awfully long way to go to get parity, isn't there?

JASON HELLWIG: I think there is, in a program sense, but in another positive announcement today was around direct athlete support, and what you see there is a the direct athlete support announced are exactly the same for able-bodied athletes as they are for Paralympic athletes.

ALISON CALDWELL: Under the Winning Edge program, sports will have to undergo a performance review each year over the next decade in order to receive funding from the government.